[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
interested in what he is doing or he would not do it. A
physician who continues to serve the sick in a plague at almost
certain danger to his own life must be interested in the
efficient performance of his profession -- more interested in
that than in the safety of his own bodily life. But it is
distorting facts to say that this interest is merely a mask for
an interest in something else which he gets by continuing his
customary services -- such as money or good repute or virtue;
that it is only a means to an ulterior selfish end. The moment
we recognize that the self is not something ready-made, but
Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com
Democracy and Education
263
something in continuous formation through choice of action, the
whole situation clears up. A man's interest in keeping at his
work in spite of danger to life means that his self is found in
that work; if he finally gave up, and preferred his personal
safety or comfort, it would mean that he preferred to be that
kind of a self. The mistake lies in making a separation between
interest and self, and supposing that the latter is the end to
which interest in objects and acts and others is a mere means.
In fact, self and interest are two names for the same fact; the
kind and amount of interest actively taken in a thing reveals and
measures the quality of selfhood which exists. Bear in mind that
interest means the active or moving identity of the self with a
certain object, and the whole alleged dilemma falls to the
ground.
Unselfishness, for example, signifies neither lack of interest in
what is done (that would mean only machine-like indifference) nor
selflessness--which would mean absence of virility and character.
As employed everywhere outside of this particular theoretical
controversy, the term "unselfishness" refers to the kind of aims
and objects which habitually interest a man. And if we make a
mental survey of the kind of interests which evoke the use of
this epithet, we shall see that they have two intimately
associated features. (i) The generous self consciously
identifies itself with the full range of relationships implied in
its activity, instead of drawing a sharp line between itself and
considerations which are excluded as alien or indifferent; (ii)
it readjusts and expands its past ideas of itself to take in new
consequences as they become perceptible. When the physician
began his career he may not have thought of a pestilence; he may
not have consciously identified himself with service under such
conditions. But, if he has a normally growing or active self,
when he finds that his vocation involves such risks, he willingly
adopts them as integral portions of his activity. The wider or
larger self which means inclusion instead of denial of
relationships is identical with a self which enlarges in order to
assume previously unforeseen ties.
In such crises of readjustment -- and the crisis may be slight as
well as great -- there may be a transitional conflict of
"principle" with "interest." It is the nature of a habit to
involve ease in the accustomed line of activity. It is the
nature of a readjusting of habit to involve an effort which is
disagreeable -- something to which a man has deliberately to hold
himself. In other words, there is a tendency to identify the
self -- or take interest -- in what one has got used to, and to
turn away the mind with aversion or irritation when an unexpected
thing which involves an unpleasant modification of habit comes
up. Since in the past one has done one's duty without having to
face such a disagreeable circumstance, why not go on as one has
been? To yield to this temptation means to narrow and isolate the
thought of the self -- to treat it as complete. Any habit, no
matter how efficient in the past, which has become set, may at
Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com
Democracy and Education
264
any time bring this temptation with it. To act from principle in
such an emergency is not to act on some abstract principle, or
duty at large; it is to act upon the principle of a course of
action, instead of upon the circumstances which have attended it.
The principle of a physician's conduct is its animating aim and
spirit -- the care for the diseased. The principle is not what
justifies an activity, for the principle is but another name for
the continuity of the activity. If the activity as manifested in
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]